


Combat Baby

by Kitty September (KittyAug)



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Genre: Complicated Relationships, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-05
Updated: 2017-01-05
Packaged: 2018-09-15 00:30:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9211805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittyAug/pseuds/Kitty%20September
Summary: Combat and comebacks on a New York night.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Faith/Buffy - Combat Baby by Metric. A @whedonsecretsanta for @angelandfaith.
> 
> Combat baby come back baby  
> Fight off the lethargy  
> Don't go quietly  
> Combat baby  
> Said you would never give up easy  
> Combat baby come back

Faith’s back hits the wall with a thump that would be sickening to a normal human. 

Faith isn’t normal, never has been. Hell, some days she doesn't feel human at all. More slayer than woman. More combat than comeback. She spins, sudden and swift to the right, before the lumbering vamp can get even register her move, let alone get his hands on her. She kicks, low and hard, taking the thing out at the kneecaps, stakes him to dust on the way up and landing back on both feet, armed and braced, ready for the next one.

Except there is no next one.

Instead, there’s Buffy. Blond hair perfect and surrounded by the falling dust of three vamps, reflected blue of the city lights filters through it like a twisted kind of halo. She looks up from wasting Faith’s assailants and their eyes meet. Faith hasn’t seen her in twelve months, she thought she was getting over it. She wasn’t. The moment Buffy looks at her, all hot tension and barely contained power, something in Faith’s chest melts. Like her heart comes unstuck, like her ribs aren’t enough to hold it. Like it’s gonna burst out of her chest and leave her, bleeding out at Buffy’s feet. Worst thing is, that’s always how Buffy’s made her feel. A little bit broken and a whole lot more excited. Buffy’s mere presence is a thrill ride.

“I could'a handled those,” Faith says, despite herself. There are so many other things she could’ve said, but doesn’t. Even, ‘hey nice to see you, B’ would’ve been better than slipping back into that self-righteous defensive bullshit that she always seems to fall straight back into the moment Buffy walks in a room. Or an alleyway, as the case may be.

“Yeah, sorry Faith. When I see them, it just kinda takes me and I’ve got to. You know?”

Faith does know. It’s like an itch that builds and builds when a vamp is close, and the only way to scratch it is vamp stabbing violence.

“Except for Angel,” says Faith. “And Spike. And maybe Willow, that one time?”

“Ah, yeah” says Buffy and shrugs. Faith isn’t sure what Buffy’s agreeing to. It doesn’t really matter. It’s all Pavlov and spit, at this point. Buffy speaks, Faith pants, Buffy agrees and Faith wants to roll over and have her belly scratched. It’s pathetic. Pathetic and inevitable. Like sunrise or bloodlust or vampires in a graveyard.

“Why are you here, B?” Faith kinda hates the whine in her voice. New York is Faith’s turf, she shouldn’t have to feel on the back foot, not like this. Not with Buffy. But the fight is always in them. In both of them. Always two breaths away from breaking. Faith knows what’s coming. Knows it like bruises and stake wood. No one here wants to fight her like Buffy does.

“You,” Buffy says. Simple and open and raw. Voice like bleeding. One word like a knife wound.

“Okay,” Faith says. That’s all there is to it, in the end.

In the end it’s always Faith and Buffy. Fists and fights, with vamps or each other. Doesn’t matter. It’s combat, baby. Followed by sex that leaves them both breathless and alive. It’s a ritual. A cleansing for both of them, rise in rapture then a violent fall back to Earth. There’s battle in both their bones. Death in both their hands. It’s what brought them together, broke them up, and brings them back, every damn time.

Sometimes, Faith thinks about begging Buffy to stay. Maybe this time she’ll do it. Maybe not.

For now, they fall into step and walk into the New York night together. Looking for a fight even knowing they can’t lose. For now, Buffy’s back and Faith feels alive. And for just right now, it’s enough.


End file.
